The "effin' stud"

Just curious, who do you define as an "effin' stud"? What's your criteria to label someone that? The 24-year-old SE of a 30K rag? The 25-year-old preps reporter of a 200K+ paper? The 26-year-old covering a major traveling beat for a 60K paper? The 27-year-old preps reporter of a 300K paper also backing up a major beat? All of the above? None of the above? Something else?

If it's supposed to mean that a reporter is highly skilled at a young age, why can't we just explain it rather than dubbing every Tom, Dick and Harry by this vague term.

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What's vague about it? We use shorthand terms like it to describe people in every other setting. "Yankees ace Mussina..." for example. Do you want people to write, instead, "Mussina, indisputably the most effective pitcher on the Yankees' staff..."?

Point is, they could well do that. But if 98% of the people reading the shorthand term understand it, I have no problem with its use. The people on this board understand "effin' stud" as well as most baseball fans understand "ace".